Workflows for Automated Operations Management

1. A method, comprising: accessing, by a controller, workflow information that defines a first workflow having a set of commands that corresponds to a sequence of steps for automatically implementing an operational scenario on a target computer environment having an initial state and a set of components that includes management interfaces and operational entities; implementing, by the controller, the set of commands of the first workflow by issuing instructions to ones of the set of components to cause the sequence of steps to be carried out, wherein the implementing of the set of commands causes one or more state changes in the target computer environment relative to the initial state; and maintaining, by the controller, workflow state information that identifies a current state of the target computer environment that permits the controller to respond to an error in implementing the set of commands, wherein implementation of the first workflow causes an implementation of a second, different workflow, wherein the first workflow and the second workflow form a hierarchy of workflows that includes the first workflow at a top level of the hierarchy of workflows and the second workflow at a next level of the hierarchy of workflows.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing, by the controller, a set of blueprints describing properties of the set of components that is managed by the controller, wherein the set of blueprints is used in implementing the first workflow.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the error corresponds to an initial failure to complete a particular one of the set of commands, and wherein the method further comprises the controller proceeding with the first workflow after responding to the error.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second workflow is implemented by a particular one of the set of components that is managed by the controller.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the controller, a request to implement the first workflow, wherein the request specifies a name value associated with the first workflow that permits the workflow information to be accessed.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: accessing, by the controller, a set of security rules defining permissible actions that are requestable by a particular set of users; and before implementing the set of commands, the controller verifying that the request to implement the first workflow is permitted by the set of security rules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more state changes include a particular state change in which a software entity is transitioned from a first software version to a second software version.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon that are capable of causing a computer system to implement a controller that performs operations comprising: accessing workflow information that defines a first workflow having a set of commands that corresponds to a sequence of steps for automatically implementing an operational scenario on a target computer environment having an initial state and a set of components; implementing the set of commands of the first workflow by issuing instructions to ones of the set of components to cause the sequence of steps to be carried out, wherein the implementing of the set of commands causes one or more state changes in the target computer environment relative to the initial state; and maintaining workflow state information that identifies a current state associated with the implementing of the set of commands that permits the controller to respond to an error in implementing the set of commands, wherein the implementing of the set of commands of the first workflow causes an implementation of a second, different workflow, wherein the first workflow and the second workflow form a hierarchy of workflows that includes the first workflow at a top level of the hierarchy of workflows and the second workflow at a next level of the hierarchy of workflows.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to detecting that a particular step of the sequence of steps cannot be carried out, reversing a set of state changes associated with the particular step to return the target computer environment to a state occurring prior to the particular step.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the implementing of the set of commands causes a particular one of the set of components to implement at least a portion of the second workflow.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: accessing, as a part of the implementing, a set of blueprints describing properties of the set of components, wherein a particular one of the set of blueprints identifies a name and a type of a particular one of the set of components.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from a user via a command line interface, a request to implement the first workflow, wherein the request specifies a name value associated with the first workflow that permits the workflow information to be accessed.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise: accessing a set of security rules defining permissible actions; and before implementing the set of commands of the first workflow, verifying that the request to implement the first workflow is permitted by the set of security rules.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operational scenario includes changing states of a set of software entities included in the target computer environment to transition the set of software entities from a first software version to a second software version.

15. A system, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory having program instructions stored thereon that are executable by the at least one processor to implement a controller that performs operations comprising: accessing workflow information that defines a first workflow having a set of commands that corresponds to a sequence of steps for automatically implementing an operational scenario on a target computer environment having an initial state and a set of components; communicating with ones of the set of components to implement the set of commands of the first workflow, wherein the implementing of the set of commands causes one or more state changes in the target computer environment relative to the initial state; and maintaining workflow state information that identifies a current state of the target computer environment that permits the controller to respond to an error in implementing the set of commands, wherein the implementing of the set of commands of the first workflow causes an implementation of a second, different workflow, wherein the first workflow and the second workflow form a hierarchy of workflows that includes the first workflow at a top level of the hierarchy of workflows and the second workflow at a next level of the hierarchy of workflows.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to detecting that a particular one of the set of commands cannot be carried out, reversing the one or more state changes to return the target computer environment to the initial state.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the set of components includes a particular component that performs, based on one or more instructions received from the controller, a set of operations on a software entity corresponding to a database.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to detecting that the error occurred, reversing a set of state changes associated with a particular command corresponding to the error to return the target computer environment to a state occurring prior to the particular command.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from a user, a request to perform the operational scenario, wherein the request specifies a name value corresponding to the first workflow that permits the workflow information to be accessed.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: accessing a set of security rules defining permissible actions; and before implementing the set of commands of the first workflow, verifying that the request to perform the operational scenario is permitted by the set of security rules.